University of Alberta adding 3 world-leading researchers

The University of Alberta has attracted three respected names in the business of scientific research with each being awarded $8 million from the federal government.

The announcement comes as the Government of Canada announced its latest Canada Excellence Research Chair recipients Thursday with budgets each of $1 million a year for the next eight years.

Kalyan Das has been named Canada Excellence Research Chair in Antiviral Drug Design and will work in the field of pandemic preparedness

Shinichi Nakagawa is becoming the new Canada Excellence Research Chair in Open Science and Synthesis in Ecology and Evolution. He "will use artificial intelligence to establish a first-of-its-kind project to weed out flawed studies," a press release said.

Rebecca Hull-Meichle is the new Canada Excellence Research Chair in the Islet Microenvironment and will work to better understand pancreatic islet cells.

In 2020, virologist Michael Houghton shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology after coming to the U of A as a CERC in 2010.

More information about each researcher is available on the university's website.